Umeå universitets logga

The school law has strengthened the rights for the pupils and parents not only through the possibility to choose the school but also to test decisions taken by the law in court. The state inspection has a great number of possibilities to act against schools that don’t fulfill the law.

When the principal needed support, they gave their demands to the school owner. We call this “under-pressure”. Often the demands are about resources. These negotiations affect the relations between the principal and the school owner, as well as between principals, teachers, and parents who have often been involved.

The strong and direct state regulation of the schools, together with a separate system for the allocation of money between states and municipalities, seems to have strengthened the relation between the state and the school and weakened the relation between the schools and the municipality (Nihlfors E, Johansson O, Rektor – en stark länk i styrningen av skolan [The school principal-a strong linkage in school governing]. SNS Förlag, Stockholm, 2013).

At the same time, well-educated, dedicated board members with an interest in education work as spare-time politicians and want to make a difference. The communication with the principals is not frequent, and they heavily rely on the information from the superintendent. Also the board members look to the national level and trust the state inspection more than they trust their own evaluations.